VoIP and AI Part 2 – How ChatGPT will affect business communications

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Over the past few years, breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) have permeated many areas of technology, making AI an integral part of a whole series of systems and applications. Undoubtedly, one of the most evident manifestations of the AI revolution is the introduction of ChatGPT into the mainstream.

In this article, we examine this particular service, what makes it unique and how it and services like it are expected to affect business communications in the future.

Recent developments in AI

We’ve spoken extensively about how AI has added value to VoIP systems and other related business applications and how this is expected to expand into other areas in the coming months and years. However, since late 2022, there has been an explosion of media attention on AI, with a level of hype not observed in the past.

The single event that brought about this new interest in the subject was the launching of the ChatGPT chatbot in late November of 2022.

The launch of ChatGPT, although a noteworthy technological event in and of itself, was an exceptional marketing tactic that essentially brought AI into the mainstream. OpenAI, the chatbot developer, made the tool free and publicly available.

As such, ChatGPT rapidly gained recognition due to its comprehensive replies and eloquent responses spanning a wide range of subject areas. This extensive usage of the chatbot by the public also plays an indispensable role in its training and future development.

The emergence of ChatGPT and its debut for the broader audience sparked greater enthusiasm and rivalry within the field. This, in turn, accelerated the introduction of competing systems from Google, Meta, and other behemoths in the field. All of this has increased interest in AI and sped up the development and deployment of these and similar AI systems.

What is ChatGPT and how does it work?

ChatGPT is a compound term from "chat" because it is a chatbot and the acronym GPT. GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer. This is a type of artificial intelligence language model developed by OpenAI.

The term "generative" refers to the model's ability to generate text based on a given input, while "pre-trained" means that the model has been trained on a large dataset before being fine-tuned for specific tasks. "Transformer" is the core architecture used in the model, which allows it to process and understand natural language efficiently.

ChatGPT is "trained" via a process of supervised learning as well as reinforcement learning. This includes an approach called reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), where human trainers help improve the model's performance.

In addition, OpenAI continues to gather data from ChatGPT users themselves. The system uses the input data to train further and fine-tune the AI chatbot. Users can upvote or downvote responses and provide additional feedback. With the massive number of daily users, the AI-learning process is sped up substantially, resulting in a pace of training that far surpasses anything OpenAI could achieve in-house.

Beyond the learning process itself, ChatGPT requires very hefty computing resources to continually "learn" as well as to process and respond to the massive number of user requests. OpenAI has employed the supercomputing infrastructure of Azure, utilizing a vast number of Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs).

The supercomputer designed for OpenAI comprises a single system with over 285,000 central processing unit (CPU) cores, 10,000 GPUs, and 400 gigabits per second of network connectivity for each GPU server.

How ChatGPT will affect VoIP and business communications

So far, we've talked about the innovation behind ChatGPT, how it works, and some of the intelligent marketing done by OpenAI. But this is a chatbot, meaning you can interact with it only via a text-based conversational interface. How is this important to using other systems, such as business communications?

Using ChatGPT for more than text chatting requires application programming interfaces or APIs. APIs are specialized computing interfaces that allow the interaction between multiple software entities.

In other words, you can directly integrate ChatGPT into other applications, including business communications systems. OpenAI is continuously developing ChatGPT APIs that will allow the intelligence acquired by ChatGPT to be channeled in different ways.

ChatGPT can easily be adapted to enable natural conversation with people on the phone using additional applications such as text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and real-time translation services. ChatGPT's functionality can include responding to questions, acting as a "sentient" auto-attendant, or even translating the conversation of two people who don't speak a common language.

These applications go well beyond what is available today with simple voice recognition applications on contact center systems.

Some of the most anticipated VoIP applications and services that we will see in the near future coming from APIs delivered by ChatGPT and other similar services include:

Virtual assistants that will be indistinguishable from humans. ChatGPT can be used to create virtual assistants that handle customer support, questions, or basic administrative tasks through VoIP systems. These virtual assistants can be integrated into existing VoIP platforms to provide users with more natural and streamlined language interactions.
Real-time translation services. ChatGPT's language understanding capabilities can be employed in applications beyond VoIP, such as webinars and videoconferencing systems, to translate between languages and allow each listener to hear the speaker in their preferred language.
Transcription services. ChatGPT can also be employed to transcribe voice calls and videoconference sessions in real time, providing call participants with accurate transcripts in any language.
Highly accurate voice-to-text and text-to-voice conversion. ChatGPT can convert voice messages into text, allowing users to interact with the system through written messages and vice versa. This can be particularly useful for people with disabilities or those who prefer a specific mode of communication.
AI-driven interactive voice response (IVR) systems. ChatGPT can be incorporated into IVR systems to understand and respond to user queries more accurately, providing a more intuitive and efficient customer experience.

Conclusion

ChatGPT stands at the forefront of a paradigm shift in business communications systems. Its remarkable ability to understand and generate human-like responses offers businesses the potential to streamline processes, improve customer experiences and facilitate efficient communication across various platforms.

By integrating ChatGPT into existing VoIP communication systems, businesses can leverage a powerful tool for various solutions. As AI technology continues to evolve, we can expect ChatGPT and similar language models to play an increasingly significant role in shaping the future of business communication, helping to drive innovation and efficiency.